Issue 107

Issue 107 comes out on January 5th. Order on its own or as part of a subscription.

Cover photography by Adam Gibson. Featuring architecture by Dock4 Architects.

In this issue, our feature brings together five kitchens – from inner city homes to rural and off-grid properties, each of these kitchens was designed for its place, for the needs of its owners and with the environment in mind.

Featuring kitchens by MYMYMY, Pattern Studio, Architecture Architecture, Architect George, Studio Manifold + Simone Haag.

With words by Penny Craswell and photos by Anne Stroud, Tom Ross, Clinton Weaver, and Traianos Pakioufakis.

In this issue, we profile Karl Bromley, Troy McKay or William Stewart, owners of Natural Brick, a New South Wales-based company producing artisan masonry from recycled materials.

With text by Lara Chapman and photography by Traianos Pakioufakis.

Our first architecture feature; a high-performing home by Ben Callery Architects that packs a lot of program into a single-storey house in Alphington. Designed for a family of five, the house balances flexible spaces for privacy and connection with passive solar design, thermal comfort and very low energy use.

With text by Kath Dolan and photography by Marnie Hawson.

Our second architecture feature; a house on Bruny Island designed through reassembly, using salvaged materials to form a modest, carefully considered retreat. Designed by Dock4 Architects, the house is organised around an internal courtyard and long deck, balancing remoteness, material reuse and year-round comfort in a highly constrained island context.

With text by Catriona McLeod and photography by Adam Gibson.

Next up; Patonga House replaces a modest two-bedroom asbestos-laden shack on a site layered with personal memories, set within a cove where the Hawkesbury River snakes away from the ocean. Designed by Casey Brown Architecture, the home responds to an “aggressive maritime environment” with two timber pavilions elevated on a concrete platform, enclosing a sheltered courtyard at its heart.

With text by Aleesha Callahan and photography by Zella Casey Brown.

Our final architecture feature transforms a modest 1970s beach cottage in Brunswick Heads into a warm, contemporary family retreat. Led by Fraser Mudge Architects with interiors by We Are Triibe, the compact reconfiguration layers courtyards, roof terraces and green voids to connect daily life with light, air and garden throughout the home.

With text by Ainsley Wynne and photography by Tom Ross.

Our first landscape feature looks to a small Paris-based studio working at the intersection of academia, social housing and conceptual gardening. Through projects in France, Italy and the United States, Wagon Landscaping uses discarded urban materials and indigenous planting to create gardens that reframe waste as a resource and foreground biodiversity, climate response and collective making.

With text by Jenny Lyon and photography by Yann Monel.

And our second landscape feature explores a resilient, naturalistic garden designed for an exposed coastal site buffeted by strong winds. Created by Bethany Williamson Landscape Architecture, the garden at Illowa Cliffs grounds a dramatic house into its setting through hardy grasses, low plantings and carefully placed stone that frame views, soften architecture and belong to the landscape.

With text by Kath Dolan and photography by Martina Gemmola.

In our Not Wasted feature, a concrete-framed municipal building in Copenhagen becomes its own material resource. Originally designed in 1967, the structure was stripped back and carefully dismantled, with floor slabs, façade panels and fittings catalogued, reused or recycled on site. The project demonstrates how reduction, reuse and reintegration can radically cut embodied carbon while preserving architectural character.

With text by Ellie Keft and photography by Hampus Berndtson.

And finally, our travel feature visits a design festival in Bali set within the ruins of a disused theme park. Jia CURATED brings together designers, makers and artists for an immersive weekend of craft, culture and environmental thinking, where installations, performances and sustainable design practices unfold among existing concrete structures reclaimed by jungle.

With text by Penny Craswell and photography by Indra Wiras, Alvin Tjitrowirjo, and C Gunawan Surya Saputra.

Our regular Upfront section showcases projects, practices and ideas we love — including Ash Allen, Jason Gibney Design Workshop with Ian Monty, the Robin Boyd Foundation and Melbourne School of Design, Lucy Simpson with Ted Fields Jnr, the Copenhagen Architecture Biennial, Slaatto Morsbøl, Tom Svilans and THISS Studio, David Laird, Callen Rawlings (PIECO), Alison Jackson (Ferro Forma), Escultura, Georgia Stevenson, Ross Gardam with Stylecraft, and Russo Betak.

And in Upfront Garden; Adam Goodrum’s Kite Breeze blocks, Mud Australia and Frost*’s Numbers & Letters, and experiments in Light Earth Construction by Assemble explore new ideas in clay, typography and low-carbon building materials.

With words by Ellie Keft and photography by Michael Pham, Sarah Weston, Maja Flink, Tom Svilans, Annika Kafcaloudis, and Henry Trumble.

Issue 107 comes out on January 5th. Order on its own or as part of a subscription.